Anyone with DIY LED experience?

[Nano]

guess you would need a fan to keep them cool though?

[Nano]

So I think thats what I may do, but I dont have a hood or canopy, these can sit on the glass can they? what If I were to make a sealed wooden canopy with fans? would this be too risky with a t5 sitting inside?

[The Grizz]

I am doing a 300 gal 8'er totally LED with 272 LEDs ( 6 colors ), 5 drivers, 4-6 fans, 2 EVG control boards & 2 - 39" x 12" heat sinks.

Also it's all going in a canopy.

[Nano]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

I am doing a 300 gal 8'er totally LED with 272 LEDs ( 6 colors ), 5 drivers, 4-6 fans, 2 EVG control boards & 2 - 39" x 12" heat sinks.

Also it's all going in a canopy.

thats gnarly man, is it going to be a wood canopy? I'm guessing so, if so I suppose you need fans to keep it cool?

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by nanomano

thats gnarly man, is it going to be a wood canopy? I'm guessing so, if so I suppose you need fans to keep it cool?

It will be a metal frame work skinned with Birch, going to have 2 - 3 fans per heatsink and a 2 - 3 fans bringing air in.

[Nano]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

It will be a metal frame work skinned with Birch, going to have 2 - 3 fans per heatsink and a 2 - 3 fans bringing air in.

Cool thanks for the advice. You think if I keep my t5 strips the fans will keep it cool enough?

[Bblinks]

I have 24 Cree on my biocube 29 and it is more than enough what ever I want in it including sps. The whole kit cost me around 200 with dimmable controls by mean well, only part I wasn't really good at was soldering but if you go with modular LEDs you won't even need to solder. Btw I used pre tapped heat sink so if I ever want to upgrade to better led I can easily do it. If that's too much work then you should look at some led plug in bulbs that goes right into a normal light socket. For a tank that size a few of the par25 bulb will work just fine. One other option will be ai sol nano, $299 and you will have a state of art led fixture.

[Nano]

Originally Posted by Bblinks

I have 24 Cree on my biocube 29 and it is more than enough what ever I want in it including sps. The whole kit cost me around 200 with dimmable controls by mean well, only part I wasn't really good at was soldering but if you go with modular LEDs you won't even need to solder. Btw I used pre tapped heat sink so if I ever want to upgrade to better led I can easily do it. If that's too much work then you should look at some led plug in bulbs that goes right into a normal light socket. For a tank that size a few of the par25 bulb will work just fine. One other option will be ai sol nano, $299 and you will have a state of art led fixture.

What type of led bulbs would be best in my case I have thought of free but I can only find 6000k

[Nano]

not too sure if this link will work or not, but does this look like a basic led set up? and this would cover my tank, does this look like a fair price? i'm shopping around But I might just end up going with modulars, we'll see, only thing is I didnt see a 12x24 inch heatsink on modularled.ca, I think I would like to do all led.
Anyways if this link works, its a list I made up coming to $214.05 canadian, I'm just not sure I have everything there? I know I need a power supply, possibly 24v those are about $30

http://us-dc1-order.store.yahoo.net/...onId=ysco.cart

[Lampshade]

The cart doesn't work. Not sure if you have dirvers in there, but going with the meanwell's is the best option, they end up being cheaper. You don't need a pwoer supply to feed the meanwell drivers. power supply's for a full LED setup will be more than $30, that's a big power supply.

The big thing with modular LED is that you don't have to screw around with soldering them. Unless you already own a GOOD soldering iron, it is not worth doing dull DIY unless you are going to save enough to make buying one worth it. The crappy heat iron ones will fry LED's, lots of people have been able to do them with that, but you're tempting fate. With the modules you can change stuff around at later days too, which seems like a cool idea. And also... who wants to solder 80+ connections :P.

And with the heatsink.. there's many opinions on them, and they're all pretty much just that. Look around for info on them, there's lots, people generally go WAY overkill with them, which isn't always a bad thing.